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A research team will document the wreckage of the Monitor, which rests 230 feet below the surface off North Carolina, and broadcast digital images back to URI and other sites around the country.
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 14, 2006
BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer
A team of 18 scientists, engineers, archeologists and historians will board the University of Rhode Island's research vessel, the Endeavor, tomorrow and travel to waters 17 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the site of a 144-year-old shipwreck.
Beneath 230 feet of water lies the Monitor, an ironclad Civil War ship that sank in a storm on the last day of 1862.
Scientists have known about the wreck for more than three decades and have recovered several artifacts, including the ship's engine, propeller, turret and guns.
Until now, however, they have been unable to take clear pictures and create a detailed map of the wreckage site.
The team aboard the Endeavor has the sophisticated equipment needed to map the sea floor and will spend more than a week taking digital images of the ship's hull and surrounding wreckage.
In addition, the scientists will be able to transmit video from the shipwreck and host a live broadcast that will be shown at 15 locations across the country at 2 p.m. Wednesday, including at URI's Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett and at the Mystic Aquarium, in Mystic, Conn. The broadcast programs are open to the public, and will include commentary from the team about the history and crew of the Monitor, the technology being used to collect images at the site and efforts to preserve artifacts recovered from the wreckage.
"One of the beauties of using our technology is that we can transmit video that we collect from the sea floor and send it anywhere in the world," said URI marine scientist Dwight Coleman, a member of the team. "Why just send a couple of scientists out on a ship when you can bring the whole world with you?"
To protect the Monitor shipwreck site, Congress in 1975 created the first National Marine Sanctuary, a one-mile circle surrounding the wreckage that is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA asked scientists at URI to come to the site with equipment, some of which was designed by Robert Ballard, the marine archeologist who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. Ballard is director of URI's Institute of Archeological Oceanography and founder of the Institute for Exploration at the Mystic Aquarium.
A remotely operated vehicle system called Argus, designed by Ballard, has deep-sea lighting, high-definition video and still cameras and sonar equipment that allow researchers to take digital images on the ocean floor.
"We'll tow Argus over the site at different altitudes and experiment with different lighting conditions in both day and night and change the camera configurations to collect as much data about the site as we possibly can," Coleman said.
In addition, Endeavor is equipped with a microwave system that allows the ship to transmit video to an antenna that will be mounted at Cape Hatteras. A satellite uplink truck parked nearby will transmit the images to educational facilities around the country, Coleman said.
About two-thirds of the $300,000 expedition is paid for by NOAA; the rest is covered by URI's Endeavor program, Coleman said. The trip will take about 11 days, and once the images are collected and sorted, the map of the wreck will be displayed next spring in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va.
"We really want to protect these sites and have the public realize their importance," Coleman said. "We have this incredible technical innovation, and this incredible cultural resource that's underwater, not visible. And thanks to the technology, there it is. Everyone can see it."
[email protected] / (401) 277-7254
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, July 14, 2006
BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer
A team of 18 scientists, engineers, archeologists and historians will board the University of Rhode Island's research vessel, the Endeavor, tomorrow and travel to waters 17 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the site of a 144-year-old shipwreck.
Beneath 230 feet of water lies the Monitor, an ironclad Civil War ship that sank in a storm on the last day of 1862.
Scientists have known about the wreck for more than three decades and have recovered several artifacts, including the ship's engine, propeller, turret and guns.
Until now, however, they have been unable to take clear pictures and create a detailed map of the wreckage site.
The team aboard the Endeavor has the sophisticated equipment needed to map the sea floor and will spend more than a week taking digital images of the ship's hull and surrounding wreckage.
In addition, the scientists will be able to transmit video from the shipwreck and host a live broadcast that will be shown at 15 locations across the country at 2 p.m. Wednesday, including at URI's Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett and at the Mystic Aquarium, in Mystic, Conn. The broadcast programs are open to the public, and will include commentary from the team about the history and crew of the Monitor, the technology being used to collect images at the site and efforts to preserve artifacts recovered from the wreckage.
"One of the beauties of using our technology is that we can transmit video that we collect from the sea floor and send it anywhere in the world," said URI marine scientist Dwight Coleman, a member of the team. "Why just send a couple of scientists out on a ship when you can bring the whole world with you?"
To protect the Monitor shipwreck site, Congress in 1975 created the first National Marine Sanctuary, a one-mile circle surrounding the wreckage that is overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA asked scientists at URI to come to the site with equipment, some of which was designed by Robert Ballard, the marine archeologist who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985. Ballard is director of URI's Institute of Archeological Oceanography and founder of the Institute for Exploration at the Mystic Aquarium.
A remotely operated vehicle system called Argus, designed by Ballard, has deep-sea lighting, high-definition video and still cameras and sonar equipment that allow researchers to take digital images on the ocean floor.
"We'll tow Argus over the site at different altitudes and experiment with different lighting conditions in both day and night and change the camera configurations to collect as much data about the site as we possibly can," Coleman said.
In addition, Endeavor is equipped with a microwave system that allows the ship to transmit video to an antenna that will be mounted at Cape Hatteras. A satellite uplink truck parked nearby will transmit the images to educational facilities around the country, Coleman said.
About two-thirds of the $300,000 expedition is paid for by NOAA; the rest is covered by URI's Endeavor program, Coleman said. The trip will take about 11 days, and once the images are collected and sorted, the map of the wreck will be displayed next spring in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va.
"We really want to protect these sites and have the public realize their importance," Coleman said. "We have this incredible technical innovation, and this incredible cultural resource that's underwater, not visible. And thanks to the technology, there it is. Everyone can see it."
[email protected] / (401) 277-7254
